Page 27 - Combat Aircraft (January 2020)

Some 18 KC-46As were originally due The ‘boomer’ views the scene on a Air National Guard properly disconnect from it either. This
to have been delivered by August 2017, screen, with a panoramic picture of the director Lt Gen L. is necessitating changes to the KC-46A’s
but the process was delayed by serious procedure provided via the Rockwell Scott Rice, left, telescopic boom actuator, funded by
and his son Capt
RVS and boom problems. These required Collins-designed RVS, a suite of visual Lee Rice, a 157th the air force, which placed a $55-million
hardware and software changes to x, and infra-red cameras that can provide ARW pilot, fl y a contract with Boeing in August 2019.
forcing Boeing to spend $3.5 billion of high- delity imagery at night or in bad KC-46A together The GAO has estimated that designing
on August 8, 2019.
its own money to nd solutions, while weather without oodlighting. ANG/SSgt Morgan the modi cation and retro tting aircraft
the USAF withheld a sum of about But the RVS produces distorted imagery R. Lipinski will cost more than $300 million, and
$500 million, equivalent to $28 million in certain lighting conditions, can
per aircraft. wash out or black out in glare, and has
inadequate acuity (de nition). The system
New technology — can make depth perception more di cult
new problems for boom operators, making it harder
Unlike previous USAF tankers, the for the operator to gauge the distance
KC-46A incorporates a remote boom between the boom and the receiver
operator station immediately behind aircraft and leading to instances of the
the ight deck. Instead of lying on his boom accidentally scraping the receiver.
or her stomach, looking at the refueling These problems are being addressed by
procedure through a big window in the Boeing, at the company’s expense.
lower fuselage while steering the boom There are other issues with the boom.
and guiding it into the AAR receptacle The A-10C Thunderbolt II, for example,
of a receiver aircraft, the boom operator does not produce su cient thrust to push
of the KC-46A sits upright, in comfort. into the boom to start refueling, and can’t

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